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Welcome to Ether Trek! Ether Trek is a private wiki that is authored by two people that want to create a story based in a fictional future in which the empires of the past still persist. We strive to create a story based on this world that follows the lives of a hand full of fictional characters supplemented by illustrations of a variety of kind that range from highly animated fantasy art to original paintings that date back to colonial times. The guiding notion of Ether Trek is loosely based on the principles of the creator of the science fiction series Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry. Conceptually this will be a 'book' that is broken into three parts that form separate entries: the First ( I ) is the narrative of the story, the Second ( II ) is the log book entries, and the Third ( III ) are official reports sent to the admiralty. Subsequently only the first part forms the story, the other two are meant to reflect the fictional reality experienced by those aboard and may become split into multiple articles as other "talking" characters are introduced into this project. This wiki will be created on a continuing basis for the private consumption of the authors and others are welcome to view it. This is unfortunately not meant to be a collaborative engagement as the two of us are undertaking this for our own private enjoyment in writing. All images depicted in here are thought of as an aide-mémoire and therefore do not constitute a representation of the image itself. With generous understanding of both Lexxus and Nsae. I. The Story __NOEDITSECTION__ This article will keep the reader at odds with the events as they unfold in the fictional reality as experienced through the entries of the captain into the log book as well as his official correspondence. The principle notion is to guide the reader through a narrative perspective rather than indirectly through those of the live occurrences. II. Log book entries Captain's logs are maintained on an irregular basis from day to day. They corroborate the events of the past day written with personal affect. The content of these logs are in part for official log book entries as well as partly personal notes. Staff reports provide a chronological overview of crew reports of the HMES Endeavor and of the Royal Ether Navy at large. III. Official communiques These are transmitted on a regular basis to Whitehall, the Royal Navy's headquarters in London, in order to keep the admiralty updated on the latest occurrences as well as official business regarding the upkeep of the ship's compliment and progress. Background : Fictional Setting The premiss of 'Ether Trek; is that the British Empire, the second French Republic, the German Empire, Russian Empire, the Japanese Empire, the Dutch Colonial Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the United States of America all avoided the inevitable war of 1914 and prolonged its occurrence until the development of the Atomic weapon in Germany through the scientific discoveries of Albert Einstein. As the world did not enter a global war, unprecedented until that time, it also in large avoided the economic decline of the 1930s which stalled any nationalist movement that would have happened in Italy, Germany and Spain. The Great Powers of Europe allied in suppression of revolt were able to fully support the Czar in Russia and the Red Russian movement became a lost cause that has left the communist movement a hopeless aspiration of only a few idealist writers. In the wake of such historical differences, the economic and military powers of that time remain to dominate the world. The space race began earlier and was fought between all Great Powers, rather than just two superpowers. Subsequently the rivalry was unstoppable and space faring nations began to populate the skies across the Solar System in great voyages of exploration and colonisation. A few technological and physical details differ substantially from the real world, the first is that space as we know it is filled with "ether" an extraordinarily light gas that allows ships to fly through without the need of rocket propulsion. Advances such as electronics and computing remain primitive yet the industrial might and economic capital has allowed for enormous growth in off world colonial enterprises. The fictional reality of this world is told through the eyepiece of one ship under command of captain Lloyd Barret for the glory of the realm and greater prosperity of mankind. Characters The Royal Ether Navy (REN) is a newly formed extension to the Royal Air Navy (RAN) which is composed of mostly aerial carriers, airships and various auxiliary biplanes. Both the older RAN and the newer REN are operated within the structure of the Royal Navy itself. Subsequently all correspondence is dealt with via Whitehall in London. The REN hosts the first purpose built military vessels for off world duties and comprises only a small squadron of craft as it is undergoing a major expansion programme. To the envy of all nations, Great Britain has firmly positioned herself ahead of its pivotal rival Germany in protecting its off world enterprises. This has become an increasingly important operation as privateer vessels of mostly French and Japanese origin, but also from other ports continue to maraud trading lanes. In view of this the first captain to commandeer one of these craft is captain Lloyd Barret. He holds exceptional experience as a former RAN and Royal Navy captain and had spent a large proportion of his service engaged with seaborne pirates within Southeast Asia and the Southern Oceans. Plot Progress The three parts of Ether Trek are expanded piece by piece. Therefore the development of the plot is fragmented and only held together by the first part "the story". The Story as stated in the above section is chronologically told, highlighting the main events as they evolve within the other two parts. The overall direction of the plot is meant to therefore evolve freely. The separate visions held by both authors are captured in separate "stories" within each piece that is written. As an analogy to this the conceptual framework of most TV-series is helpful, as usually there are different directors for each episode within the series. While the "Story" is the overall arch of the individual pieces and in this we will keep track of each others separate tales. To enable a seamless coherent setting the language used by the authors is standardised with agreed upon terminology, characters and universe.